Travel Channel to produce YouTube sensation Best Daym Takeout'

By DOUGLAS CLEMENT , Connecticut Magazine

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Listen up, B. You’ve never experienced a food review the way you will when a larger-than-life “fam” man from the post-industrial belly of Connecticut, all 6 feet, 5 inches and 390 pounds of Daymon “Daym” Patterson, slides to the spot on the Travel Channel this summer — where his own branded show will give viewers the “super official” word on the “Best Daym Takeout” in Chicago, New Orleans and other iconic food cities when it debuts July 31.

You feel me, B? With more than 12.1 million views and counting, this YouTube sensation has become a digital age entrepreneur by focusing his palate on an everyman’s menu of items — the staples of Dunkin’ Donuts, Sonic, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell — breaking them down in his irrepressible style in addictive dash-cam videos shot mise-en-scene in parking lots everywhere. He makes his inimitable pronouncements from behind the steering wheel.

In the new original series, “Best Daym Takeout,” the Travel Channel says, “Daym continues to give fans his distinctive reviews and off-the-wall commentary while traveling the country in search of the best carryout in each town he visits. From big-city eats to small-town shops, his blend of comically poetic descriptions will have viewers craving delicious takeout all over America.” In addition to locations featured in the premiere back-to-back episodes, airing at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Eastern, his other stops this summer include Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco.

“This is my new life. And I still haven’t changed a thing,” Patterson said by phone, breaking down the basics this way: Born and raised in Stratford, Conn., and now living in New Britain, the married father of two daughters was livin’ the blue collar life, working as a manager for such chains such as Home Depot and Lowe’s.

He created a YouTube channel called Ghetto News Network, acting as his own reporter, and, according to his press, creating low budget commercials for products that caught his attention.

When he jumped to Walmart, a simple shift in his lunch break was the catalyst that opened the door to his breakthrough.

At the nationwide chain maligned for the dismal state of its wages, Patterson found freedom when his break was supersized to an hour from 30 minutes at those other chains.

With time in hand, he turned his YouTube lens to food, checking in on Burger King and parsing the merits of frozen hot chocolate at Dunkin’. The latter video got 134, views, Patterson recalled, saying, “That was a lot to me.”

“His first commercial about a food product garnered more views in one week than all his other videos received for the entire month,” his Travel Channel press says. “With this new information in hand, Patterson changed his reviews to be solely based on food – with an injection of his larger-than-life personality, and began his career of delivering hilarious and insightful commentary from the driver’s seat of his car. Then the feedback from his audience, or “fam,” started — now well nourished on @DaymDrops on Twitter, his Facebook page and by his YouTube subscribers —and the notoriety built. When Patterson introduces each of his videos with his trademark “listen now,” the world increasingly began doing just that, including late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon. Patterson’s special guest appearances on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” have had him reviewing the Whitman’s Chocolate Sampler for Valentine’s Day 2013 and the return of McDonald’s McRib in 2012.

As the buzz built about “Daym Drops Super Official Food Reviews” on YouTube, Patterson was working as a buyer at a CarMax in Connecticut, and liking the job.

But then a Five Guys Burgers and Fries review last year went viral—now with nearly 4 million views—and Patterson’s ticket to Internet entrepreneurship was punched, with advertisers eagerly signing onto his videos, and then the Travel Channel on the line with an offer he couldn’t pass up.

“This is now my full-time job,” Patterson said with due pride, and at the end of this month, all of America will get to see why a self-professed food critic went from low-budget YouTube startup to a national brand on nothing but determination, his palate and a style that seems so simple on the surface but is both unique and actually sophisticated in true measure.

Unique enough that the Travel Channel posted a video in which Patterson explains his “Daymisms” to the viewing public. Whatever strict derivation of “B” might seem obvious, Patterson has adapted it as the equivalent of a group hug. Broadly and simply, it translates as friend. Slide to the spot, meanwhile, means heading to the place to be reviewed.

When Patterson announces that he’s going to “beat this up,” he’s telling the audience that the biting and assessing process is about to commencing, or that he’s going to “take a bit and let the flavors absorb all in the mouth … work around on the palate.” That can result in pronouncements on his YouTube videos that food, even packing, is sexy, or, by contrast, plain spoken negative judgments after a “nothing to see here” flash-up bar obscures him giving the bite he took back to the packaging. As for the “super official” part of the reviews, no explanation is needed, right?

Patterson says, putting super in front of most things makes them, well, powerful, authoritative, like putting super in front of man to get Superman. So get ready Chicago and New Orleans. “The premiere half-hour episode follows Patterson as he samples some of the best takeaway Chicago has to offer,” the Travel Channel says.

“From the deep dish at Pequod’s Pizza in Lincoln Park, the hot dog at Superdawg in Norwood Park to the Italian roast beef sandwich at Mr.Beef in River North, Patterson delivers his patented blend of hilarious and poetic critiques to describe each mouthful of Chi-Town cuisine. In the second half-hour episode, he heads south for that authentic New Orleans taste with some crispy fried chicken at Willie Mae’s Scotch House in Treme, blazing hot crawfish at Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter, and a belly-full of po-boys at the Freret St. Po-boys & Donuts in Uptown. Patterson soon discovers, it’s not that easy in ‘The Big Easy’ to crown one of these local hot spots the winner.” From there it’s on to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco. The focus right now is the limited season, and Patterson says, “Let’s just see if the people … gravitate toward it.” If it’s a hit, more episodes are sure to follow. If it doesn’t get extended, Patterson sees only upside. “It’s taken me around the country,” he says of taping the show, adding, “Either way, I’m still going to be doing this.” That “this” also includes Askdaym.com, his relationship advice blog, and Daymtastic.com, which features his travels, full reviews of dishes, and his thoughts on restaurants — both of which he nourishes when taking a break from his YouTube channel. And despite his sort of culinary Hip-Hop style, the proud father keeps all of it clean so adults and younger audiences alike can feel comfortable. For more on “Best Daym Takeout” head to the Travel Channel’s website.